GRACE - Receiving It + Giving It

Hello Grace Church family + friends!

Each February, we spend some time reflecting on the mission + vision of our church. It's important for us to remember why we do we do and what we hope to accomplish together as we follow God's call for Grace Church.

This Sunday will be our concluding Sunday in the series and we will be focusing on the grace of God and the grace God's people should provide to others.

Grace is tricky. 

Grace is often misunderstood. 

Grace is underestimated. 

And our prideful resistance to grace can keep us blind and deaf to God's continual invitations into the life he has called us to live. 

Flannery O' Connor once wrote, "All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful." Let's not resist God's grace. Together, let's fall in to the grace freely given to us in the wonderful Gospel of Jesus!

So what is Grace? One simple way to understand is Grace is to think of it as favor or kindness. But it goes further than that. It is favor or kindness shown without regard to the worth or merit of the one who receives it and in spite of what that person deserves. 

So grace essentially means gift. 

Due to our sinful (i.e., broken) condition, we desperately need the grace of God (Ephesians 2:1-10). Everything benevolent and lovely from God is due to this grace. It's all divine gift. 

So, in a fallen and broken world, grace essential. 

In a fallen and broken world, where we are both the victim and the perpetrator, grace is the only way we experience God; and showing grace to others in the best way to display God to the searching world around us. 

In a fallen and broken world full of fallen and broken people, grace may seem out of place, weak, and extremely difficult to give; but grace is always necessary. 

We, the body of Christ, the church, are the greatest recipients of God's grace; therefore, we should be great at giving grace to others. 

Join us this Sunday as we learn how to do this together!

Missed any Sundays in our A Church called Grace series? Here they are:

February 7th: Mission + Vision

February 14th: A Jesus Community
February 21st: A Serve + Renew Community
February 28th: A Grace Community (yet to be recorded)

Hope to see you Sunday morning at DHS. All are welcome. Invite a friend to join us!

Grace + Peace, 

P. Heath